Introducing Google Distributed Cloud—in your data center, at the edge, and in the cloud

Now more than ever, organizations are looking to accelerate their cloud adoption. They want easier development, faster innovation, and efficient scale, all while simultaneously reducing their technology risk. However, some of their workloads cannot move to the public cloud entirely or right away, due to factors such as industry or region-specific compliance and data sovereignty needs, low latency or local data-processing requirements, or because they need to run close to other services.

To ensure these workloads can still take advantage of what the cloud has to offer, today at Google Cloud Next ’21 we are announcing Google Distributed Cloud, a portfolio of solutions consisting of hardware and software that extend our infrastructure to the edge and into your data centers. 

Depending on your organization’s needs, you can run Google Distributed Cloud across multiple locations, including:

1. Google’s network edge - Allowing customers to leverage over 140+ Google network edge locations around the world.

2. Operator edge - Enabling customers to take advantage of an operator’s edge network and benefit from 5G/LTE services offered by our leading communication service provider (CSP) partners. The operator edge is optimized to support low-latency use cases, running edge applications with stringent latency and bandwidth requirements. 

3. Customer edge - Supporting customer-owned edge or remote locations such as retail stores, factory floors, or branch offices, which require localized compute and processing directly in the edge locations. 

4. Customer data centers - Supporting customer-owned data centers and colocation facilities to address strict data security and privacy requirements, and to modernize on-premises deployments while meeting regulatory compliance.

Google Distributed Cloud is built on Anthos, an open-source-based platform that unifies the management of infrastructure and applications across on-premises, edge, and in multiple public clouds, all while offering consistent operation at scale. Google Distributed Cloud taps into our planet-scale infrastructure that delivers the highest levels of performance, availability, and security, while Anthos running on Google-managed hardware at the customer or edge location provides a services platform on which to run applications securely and remotely. Using Google Distributed Cloud, customers can migrate or modernize applications and process data locally with Google Cloud services, including databases, machine learning, data analytics and container management. Customers can also leverage third-party services from leading vendors in their own dedicated environment. At launch, a diverse portfolio of partners, including Cisco, Dell, HPE, and NetApp, will support the service.

Our first products under this portfolio include Google Distributed Cloud Edge and Google Distributed Cloud Hosted.

Google Distributed Cloud Edge 

Available in preview today, Google Distributed Cloud Edge is a fully managed product that brings Google Cloud’s infrastructure and services closer to where your data is being generated and consumed. Google Distributed Cloud Edge empowers you to run 5G Core and radio access network (RAN) functions at the edge, alongside enterprise applications, to support mission-critical use cases such as computer vision and Google AI edge inferencing. 

Google Distributed Cloud Edge is ideal for running local data processing, low-latency edge compute workloads, modernizing on-premises environments, and deploying private 5G/LTE solutions across a variety of industries. With Google Distributed Cloud Edge, retailers can provision applications at a Google network location, which allows in-store teams to focus on customers rather than sorting out IT. Manufacturers can save time and money by using video for visual inspections on factory floors, and CSPs can offer high-speed bandwidth with private 5G and localized compute to their customers. 

Google Distributed Cloud Edge builds on our telecommunication solutions and empowers CSPs to run workloads on Intel and NVIDIA technologies to deliver new 5G and edge use cases. Google Distributed Cloud Edge also allows ISV and network functions partners, application developers, and data scientists to deliver innovation and scale quickly and efficiently.

“CSPs are looking for faster ways to deploy cloud-native network architecture that can bring flexibility and agility to their edge solutions” said Dan Rodriguez, VP & GM Network Platforms Group at Intel, “Google Distributed Cloud Edge will help accelerate the delivery of 5G Telco Cloud and services at the edge leveraging Intel® Smart Edge Open, Intel’s FlexRAN® reference software, and Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors.”

“We are excited to partner with Google Cloud on Google Distributed Cloud Edge,” said Ronnie Vasishta, Senior Vice President of Telecom at NVIDIA. “This builds on our continued partnership to deliver GPU-accelerated computing and networking solutions that help the telecommunications industry and enterprises harness data and AI-on-5G or AI at the edge to unlock new business opportunities.”

We are also committed to delivering cloud capabilities to our partners’ 5G networks and beyond. Google Distributed Cloud Edge furthers our previously announced global, strategic partnerships with both Ericsson and Nokia to bring new solutions built on a cloud-native 5G core and develop the network edge as a business services platform for enterprises.

“This announcement builds on our on-going partnership with Google Cloud to develop Nokia cloud-native 5G core and Nokia radio solutions for Google’s edge computing platform. By extending this relationship into Google Distributed Cloud Edge, we will increase customer choice and flexibility, ultimately helping our global customer base with multiple cloud-based solutions to deliver 5G services on the network edge,” said Nishant Batra, Nokia Chief Strategy and Technology Officer.

In addition to network modernization, we are focused on building an edge ecosystem to help CSPs move beyond connectivity services and monetize the edge. Together, 5G and edge provide a powerful combination to help enterprises continue to digitize their business while leveraging third-party services from our trusted partner ecosystem in their dedicated environment. 

“The announcement of Google Distributed Cloud supports Ericsson’s vision of the network becoming a platform of innovation, enabling companies across the ecosystem to deliver the applications of the future the way they need to, unlocking the full potential of 5G and edge,” said Rishi Bhaskar, Vice President and Head of Hyperscale Cloud Providers for Ericsson North America.

Google Distributed Cloud Hosted

Designed to run sensitive workloads, Google Distributed Cloud Hosted builds on the digital sovereignty vision we outlined last year, and supports public-sector customers and commercial entities that have strict data residency, security or privacy requirements. 

Google Distributed Cloud Hosted provides you with a safe and secure way to modernize an on-premises deployment, regardless of whether you do it yourself or choose to host through a designated, trusted partner. Google Distributed Cloud Hosted does not require connectivity to Google Cloud at any time to manage infrastructure, services, APIs, or tooling, and uses a local control plane provided by Anthos for operations. Google Distributed Cloud Hosted will be available in preview in the first half of 2022. 

To address the needs of customers and governments across Europe, we are also developing trusted partner offerings as part of our ‘Cloud. On Europe’s Terms’ initiative. These partners will provide governments and enterprises the highest levels of digital sovereignty, without compromising on functionality or pace of innovation. Each of these partnerships leverage different technologies. Last week, we announced a "Trusted Cloud" partnership with Thales. On Google Distributed Cloud Hosted, two of our initial partnerships are with T-Systems in Germany and OVHcloud in France. 

T-Systems is building a sovereign cloud offering in partnership with Google Cloud for private and public-sector organizations based in Germany, which will become available in mid-2022. 

“T-Systems and Google Cloud share a common goal of developing cloud-based solutions for European governments and enterprises that meet their digital sovereignty, sustainability and economic objectives,” said Frank Strecker, Senior Vice President Global Cloud Computing & Big Data and Edge, T-Systems. “Together we will offer a sovereign cloud solution for customers in Germany that gives them peace of mind to meet their rapidly evolving data, operational, and software sovereignty requirements.”

We’ve also announced a strategic partnership with OVHcloud to accelerate French and European organizations’ ability to digitally transform and reimagine their businesses.

“We have seen how Google Cloud listens to their customers, partners and policymakers in Europe and heard the need for even greater control and autonomy,” said Sylvain Rouri, CSO at OVHcloud. “Together, we are building a sovereign cloud services portfolio that provides clients with full control over their data, software and operations whilst leveraging the full power of Google Cloud and meeting the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation.”

A cloud infrastructure built for your evolving needs

In addition to building a true distributed cloud, our work on core Google Cloud infrastructure (compute, network, and storage capabilities) continues unabated. 

This year, Google Cloud expanded its global infrastructure by opening four new regions in Warsaw, Delhi, Melbourne, and Toronto. We now have 28 regions around the world, making us the largest and lowest latency network among hyperscale cloud providers. We also announced future availability in Berlin-Brandenburg; Columbus, OH; Israel; Madrid; Milan; Paris; Santiago; Saudi Arabia; and Turin. Combined with over 140 network-edge locations worldwide, these Google Cloud regions deliver the services, capacity, and performance you need to ensure a terrific experience for your users.

We also continued to advance our network by investing in subsea cables that improve access to Google services. With the addition of Firmina, which will connect the East Coast of the United States to three locations in South America, we now have investments in 19 subsea cables. All of this allows us to provide transformative infrastructure to businesses that build on Google Cloud.

Service-centric networking 

As our global network increases in reach, we’re building out service-centric networking capabilities to simplify everything from connectivity to observability. For organizations with interconnects, VPNs, and SD-WANs, Networking Connectivity Center provides a centralized management model, with monitoring and visualization through our Network Intelligence Center. And, with Private Service Connect, partners and customers such as Bloomberg, MongoDB, and Elastic are now able to easily connect services without having to configure the underlying network. 

Enterprises with workloads both on-premises and in the cloud can leverage hybrid load balancing to securely optimize application delivery. To help you detect and prevent malicious bot attacks, we recently integrated reCAPTCHA Enterprise with Cloud Amor. Together with Cloud IDS, the Google network edge is fortified with best-in-class security. 

Industry-leading compute

One of the reasons people choose Google Cloud is for access to the latest high-performance compute services. For example, Compute Engine can be configured with Tau VMs, which are optimized for scale-out workloads. Tau VMs offer 42% higher price-performance compared to general-purpose virtual machines from any of the leading public cloud vendors. 

Today, we are also excited to announce our new Compute Engine Spot VMs in Preview. Spot VMs offer customers better guaranteed minimum savings and more pricing predictability than spot instances from any other leading cloud provider. With fewer restrictions on excess compute capacity, Spot VMs are the future of preemptible instances for Google Cloud. 

Both Tau VMs and Spot VMs are supported with Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). 

Reliable and secure storage 

Over the last year, we’ve been focused on making our storage easier to use, more performant, and the best choice for enterprises. We recently announced extensions to our popular Cloud Storage offering, and introduced two new services: Filestore Enterprise and Backup for GKE. Together, these new capabilities make it easier for you to protect your data out-of-the box across a wide variety of applications and use cases. For a deeper dive into these storage announcements, watch our on-demand webinar, listen to our developer podcast, and be sure to attend our storage-focused sessions at NEXT '21. 

Delivering a flexible cloud strategy

Our goal is to make your journey to the cloud easy. With transformative capabilities to help you innovate faster and save money, we follow an open approach to give you the greatest flexibility and choice as your organization evolves. Join us at the “Driving Transformation with Google Distributed Cloud” spotlight session and watch the interactive live demo of Google’s latest investments in application modernization and infrastructure in a distributed cloud environment.